THAT CRAFTY old buzzard Hugh Barrow, this week shared on Facebook an interesting post, from the great David McNair, intimating that a few tickets, priced £50 a pop, are still available for the West of Scotland Rugby Referees Society's annual dinner, to be held at Hughenden, on Friday, 26 April.
The man with the whistle will be Wayne Barnes, with oor ain Jim Fleming as AR1. You don't have to be a referee to realise, this is a quality bill and I urge speed in contacting Mr McNair if you want to be at what promises to be a richt guid nicht.
To continue on my avian/legal trajectory; the lovely legal eagle what cares for my second grandson – PC Big Yin – drew me in the wider family Secret Santa draw last year. However, she missed my hint that Wayne Barnes' autobiography would be a good present.
However, she came up trumps with that tome for my recent birthday, and mid-way through it, my regard for the now retired Barnesy has grown. It's a cracking read, with one or two laugh out loud moments, particularly when he recounts adventures involving him and Nigel Owens during down time.
It's a cracking read, which I commend to the House.
TOONY TOMBOLA, that's the name some of the less-generous commentators on our game have given to our esteemed National Coach's selection policy.
We saw yet another game of this on Monday, when the latest round of selection hokey-cokey played out in a press release from HQ.
INTO the International squad came: Rory Sutherland, Javan Sebastian, Marshall Sykes and Jamie Dobie.
OUT went WP Nel, Alex Craig and Sione Tuipulotu.
I still feel the longer the SRU stalls on:
Reintroducing an A team
Getting them REGULAR AND MEANINGFUL games
Having a properly-managed and working pathway between the Under-20s and the A team and that squad and the international one
The worse it will be for the long-term good health of Scottish international rugby.
Let's take Alex Craig as an example. OK, his career has been hampered by injuries, but, he vanished off the radar, following his initial two caps, won during the 2021 Six Nations. He's not the only player to seemingly be cast aside then recalled.
Marshall Sykes won his only cap, against Tonga in Autumn 2021, then he too vanished, only to be recalled on Monday, having seemingly, in the process overtaken his club-mate Jamie Hodgson in the pecking order. There has to be more-consistency of selection, which means, a proper Scotland A programmme.
It goes, I feel, without saying, that a third professional team would also be an asset in squaring the circle of proper preparation v game time from a limited number of players.
GREAT BRITAIN'S Sevens squad operates so-far beneath the radar, they could give our Trident submarine fleet lessons in how to avoid public scrutiny. So, it was nice to see them reach the final of the latest World Rugby HSBC Sevens Circuit tournament in Los Angeles.
Media interest, of course, centred on what we must now I suppose call: The Dupont Effect, with that man Antoine continuing his one-man transformation of his nation's hopes, as he led Les Bleus to victory in the final.
We try to sell Rugby Union as the ultimate team game – a game for all shapes and sizes, then along comes this French superstar to show what a difference one man, with sufficient individual talent can make.
Reaching the final was a terrific boost for the Tam GB squad, which includes several Scots: Robbie Fergusson, Ross McCann, Kaleem Barretto, Matt Davidson and Jamie Farndale. Former Ayr and Glasow man Fergusson, the Team GB Captain, pictured below, even made it into the Team of the Tournament.
One more point from the three remaining tournaments will see them confirm their place in next season's roster, while they have a terrific chance of also clinching a place in this year's Olympic Games in Paris. Timing and momentum is everything and, after a third place finish in Vancouver, and the runners-up spot in LA, things are building nicely for the team.
THESE DAYS are past and in the past they must remain, but, for all the advances in technology since then, I fear the broadcasting coverage of Rugby Union has gone backwards since the Golden Era of Bill McLaren, Cliff Morgan, Nigel Starmer-Smith and BBC coverage.
Certainly, successors such as Eddie Butler, Brian Moore and Andrew Cotter and Lee McKenzie have excelled, but, against that, we've had talentless oiks such as Woodward, Dallaglio, the insufferable Inverdale, Claire Thomas and a coterie of myopic English and Welsh talking heads foisted on us, as different broadcasters have chased each other down-market.
I felt Amazon Prime did a passable job in covering the Autumn Internationals, but I see they appear to have been out-bid by TNT Sport for the 2024 series. This is worrying. I accept they do a sterling job in their coverage of the Gallagher Premiership, but, they are very-much a London-based organisation, apart from Manchester, everywhere north of the M25 is a case of: “Here be dragons”.
I fear we are going to largely, be subjected to a diet of everything English is wonderful and the rest of us barely matter – even from their Irish contingent.
Roll on Independence and those games involving the Scotland national team being free-to-air. An old man can still dream.
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